Capacitors are one type of component used in the fabrication of integrated circuits, for example in DRAM and other memory circuitry. A capacitor is comprised of two conductive electrodes separated by a non-conducting insulator region. As integrated circuitry density has increased, there is a continuing challenge to maintain sufficiently high storage capacitance despite decreasing capacitor area. The increase in density has typically resulted in greater reduction in the horizontal dimension of capacitors as compared to the vertical dimension. In many instances, the vertical dimension of capacitors has increased.
One manner of fabricating capacitors is to initially form an insulative or other support material within which a capacitor storage electrode is formed. For example, an array of capacitor electrode openings for individual capacitors may be fabricated in an insulative support material, with an example material being silicon dioxide doped with one or both of phosphorus and boron. Openings within which some or all of the capacitors are formed are etched into the support material. Conductive material is deposited to line and less-than-fill the individual openings. The conductive material may be planarized or etched back relative to the support material to form individual elevationally inner capacitor electrodes within individual of the openings. In some methods, most if not all of the support material is then etched away to enable the radially outer as well as the radially inner sidewall surfaces of the electrodes to provide capacitor surface area and thereby increased capacitance for the capacitors being formed. Yet, capacitor electrodes formed in deep openings are often correspondingly much taller than they are wide. This can lead to toppling of the capacitor electrodes during etching to expose the outer sidewall surfaces, during transport of the substrate, during deposition of the capacitor insulator material, and/or during deposition of the outer capacitor electrode material. Brace or lattice-like retaining structures have been proposed and used to alleviate such toppling.
Still, capacitors continue to be packed horizontally closer together. This may be facilitated by making the lateral or radial thicknesses of the elevationally inner capacitor electrodes ever thinner. This may diminish their structural integrity to the point of requiring that some or all of the support material remain radially outward of the electrodes for them to survive subsequent processing. Accordingly, only some or none of the radially outer surfaces of such capacitor electrodes are covered by the capacitor insulator between the elevationally inner and outer electrodes, resulting in loss of capacitive surface area and capacitance. Capacitance reduced thereby may be compensated for by making the capacitors taller. This may, however, lead to increased electrical resistance from the bottom of the individual capacitor electrodes to their tops due to the thinner radial/lateral thickness of the conductive material from which the capacitor electrodes are formed. Such can result in read/write characteristics of the capacitor being degraded